Can Stocks Buck a Higher Dollar?

Amid the hype over the Dow's record, big-cap U.S. multinationals' profits could be vulnerable to a rising greenback.

The hoopla is finally over, and a new high for the Dow Jones Industrial Average is in the record books. Was this really an important event?

Not if we consider that the Russell 2000 index of small-capitalization stocks moved to all-time highs in December as did the Standard & Poor's 400 MidCap index. On the other side, the large-capitalization benchmark, the S&P 500, is still several percent below its 2007 zenith. The New York...